Biloxi, MS - Alan Goodyear and Glen Ridgeway sat under the tattered shelter outside Goodyear's FEMA trailer earlier this week, waiting. Goodyear, 51, was waiting for his back to heal, and Ridgeway, 54, was waiting to take a bus to Seattle, where he hoped to find work and housing. Both said finding a place to live for a good price in South Mississippi is difficult. "There's just no housing," said Ridgeway, who was living in a FEMA trailer on Howard Avenue but left town in search of mild weather and better luck.
Goodyear is recovering from a back injury and qualifies for $550 a month rental allowance from FEMA, but he can't find anything at that price, so he lives in his trailer on a piece of land with an understanding landlord. "You can find apartments, but these people charge $800 a month and more," Goodyear said. "I'm not going to be able to live in this trailer forever. Right now, I'm just stuck."
The two are examples of what some say is the biggest obstacle to recovery from Hurricane Katrina - affordable housing. Attorney Reilly Morse is a member of the STEPS Coalition, a local group that advocates fair and affordable housing on the Coast. He said there isn't enough small rental housing or low-income housing for Coast residents who can't afford to pay rent at apartment complexes or own a home.
Using figures from FEMA, Morse said more than 80,000 affordable housing units are needed along the Coast at a cost of about $1.3 billion. He believes local cities and the state aren't doing enough to fix the problem and it's a form of discrimination. Morse and the STEPS Coalition say affordable housing must be addressed before federal money earmarked for such is diverted to projects such as improvements at the Port of Gulfport. "We are trying to put a set of data out there that will begin what ought to happen - a public dialogue about whether we've finished housing recovery or not and if we haven't, where do we need to put funds?" he said.
Coast cities, especially Gulfport, Morse said, have blocked Katrina cottages and other low-income housing complexes because homeowners don't want them in their neighborhoods. In June, the state's Region VIII Housing Authority filed suit against the city, challenging the Planning Commission's denial of two affordable housing properties. The suit is pending.
But Mayor Brent Warr said the city needs low-income housing and government-assisted housing and has hired a housing production specialist. Warr estimated the city needs about 2,000 affordable housing units. Bobby Hensley, executive director of the Biloxi Housing Authority, said the city has several hundred people on the waiting list for public housing. Currently the city has 235 units in the Hope VI development on Back Bay, and 50 of those are occupied.
The remaining 185 will be ready by January, he said. The housing authority will begin construction on 34 more units in January. "I'm sure we would have more people on the waiting list if we had more housing," Hensley said. "But people know we don't, so they don't even bother to get on the list."
Hensley added he has eliminated the list for Section 8 housing because there are no units available. Morse said cities and the state must change the way they are handling affordable housing. "Whether it's the financing or the hurdles set up by zoning, renters are not going to have choices," he said. "The answer is to change some of the things we're doing."
Source: SunHerald.com